Journal of Engineering Geology

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./files/site1/files/5.pdfExtended Abstract
(Paper pages 247-276)
Intro

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./files/site1/files/6.pdfExtended Abstract
(Paper pages 277-298)
Introduction
Preparation of uniform and repeatable reconstituted sand specimens of required density is a prerequisite for obtaining reliable results from experimental studies. Among different methods of reconstituted specimens, sand pluviation technique is widely adopted by researchers because of its unique advantage. In this study, a new curtain traveling rainer (CTR) is developed for large model sand bed preparation in experimental studies. CTR is a simple and low-cost system which is worked on the principle of air pluviation of sand. It provides specimens with wide range of relative density of sand bed (viz, 30%-90%) and very high degree of spatial uniformity of density distribution while reducing the time of preparation the specimens. A series of laboratory tests is carried out in order to study the performance of the proposed system and the effect of the curtain speed, curtain width, height of the fall and flow rate on the relative density and uniformity of sand specimens. For the sand used in the present study, it was observed that the relative density increases with an increase in the curtain speed and height of the fall. Furthermore, increasing the curtain width results in reducing the relative density.
Material and Methods
The calibration of geotechnical in situ tests in granular soil requires the preparation of large, uniform, and replicable specimens of a desired density. When preparing calibration chamber specimens, the adoption of techniques such as chemical impregnation and the freezing method in order to obtain undisturbed granular specimens becomes unfeasible due to the technical limitations and relatively high expense of these techniques. Conversely, the pluviation method has been widely used because of its ability to simulate the depositional mechanism of the soil and because of its applicability to a wide range of specimens, from small specimens for triaxial tests to large specimens for calibration chamber tests. 
soil sample was chosen from natural white-yellow silica sand mines of Firouzkooh, which can be categorized as poorly graded sand (SP) based on unified classification system (USCS). In order to control sand flow rate at the end of the pluviation path, a series of plates is designed to have rectangular openings with a width range of 2 to 4.5 mm. It should be noted that a sand reservoir is included in the transformer, which enables a uniform sand flow over the rectangular opening. the raining height is set at 100 mm to 500 mm with 100 mm steps. For more accuracy an extra test with  height fall equal 150 mm is performed.
A contiguous system of wheel-rail is operated for effective transmission of the traveling funnel over the entire sample surface in the circular container. The device’s jacking system and its related components are the cause of several limitations, which lead to the implementation of two-joint methods for keeping the sand rain height constant during the pluviation and sample preparation process.
Results and discussion
The CTR system comprises sand transfer compartments from the main hopper to the sample container and a rectangular opening at the bottom of the hopper, which controls the pluviation flow rate. The main concept driver of this research is to reproduce large samples in the most efficient time.  In order to recognize the uniformity of the reconstituted specimen in the vertical and horizontal directions, the variation of density is evaluated by placing 20 cylindrical molds within the specimen.
In this paper the effect of deposition intensity and the effect of height and flow rate on the sample relative density are evaluated.
Calibration of the sample preparatory device is very important in order to produce optional and repeatable samples with a specified relative density, in experimental studies and laboratory models. According to the test results, the effects of drop height and flow rate are investigated. Calibration graphs are presented in Figs. 1 and Fig. 2 for the proposed system in the case of 2.5 cm and 5 cm layer thickness.



Conclusion
This paper aims to extend the existing apparatus to achieve consistent low and high relative density sand samples. The preparation of low relative density samples is particularly important in liquefaction studies in geotechnical earthquake engineering. The comprehensive design and calibration of the CTR system can be concluded in the following points. The proposed method can easily be deployed to produce any arbitrary sample with a wide range of relative densities. Increasing the flow rate given a constant drop height leads to decrease in the relative density and is independent of layer thickness. Keeping constant the drop height and flow rate, higher relative densities can be achieved by increasing the curtain traveling velocity. There is a direct relationship between drop height and relative density. The  results  give  some  information  about  the  deposition  process  and  in particular about the terminal falling height. It can be henceforth stated that the performance of the proposed system is reliable and very acceptable due to high uniformity across the entire sample. 

 

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./files/site1/files/7.pdfExtended Abstract
(Paper pages 299-318)
Introduction
Bentonite has been used industrially in various construction projects. This material is used, due to its limited hydraulic conductivity, in some cases such as landfill, sealing walls and nuclear waste disposal tanks. Recently, many researchers have investigated the use of bentonite slurry systems for injection into granular soils under static and dynamic loading conditions in order to improve soil engineering performance. In this condition, bentonite slurry is deposited in a loose soil with low pressure and without disturbance in the structure of the soil under injection. Due to the nature of the thixotropy of the bentonite slurry, the injected material is deposited in the form of gel structures in the soil and leads to increasing soil resistance to static and dynamic loads. For suitable soil engineering properties in granular soil, the use of concentrated bentonite slurry is appropriate; high concentrations will limit the penetration of bentonite due to low soil permeability. In order to overcome this limitation, slurry rheological properties such as viscosity must be corrected in order to increase the depth of sand penetration. Other researchers observed that with the reduction of viscosity in the cement slurry with micro-size particles, the amount of its penetration in the sand column significantly increased.
In present paper, due to the lack of studies on the penetration rate of bentonite in sand and also the effective role of bentonite in the mechanical properties of sandy soils, the permeability of sandy soils by bentonite under the influence of change factors such as concentration of bentonite in injection suspension were investigated.
Material and Methods
In the present study, Firoozkooh sand samples with the traditional names of 131, D11 and D1 were used for testing. Different concentrations of bentonite slurry which is used in this study are 3, 5 and 7% of the bentonite to water ratio.
Figure 1 shows the location of the reading of the penetration length and Figure 2 shows variations in the length of infiltration against time for different heights of the pressure head.


Figure 1. The reading point of the penetration length in the sample


Figure 3 shows the variations of penetration length versus pressure heads for samples with a relative density of 70% at concentrations of bentonite slurry of 3, 5 and 7% in different aggregates. It can be stated that while the concentration of bentonite to water increases, the longitudinal penetration of the injected substance into the sample is reduced. For example, in sand 131 with Dr=70% the penetration value at a pressure head of 130 cm for suspension containing 3% bentonite slurry is 100 cm. The same values for samples containing 5% and 7% bentonite are 45 and 20 cm respectively. This is due to the increase in the presence of bentonite slurry (solid substance) in the suspension. The greater amount of solids inside the suspension causes the greater contact between sand grains with solid particles of suspensions. As a result, it causes increasing friction for longitudinal motion. Therefore, with increasing the concentration of suspension the length of its movement in the soil is reduced. Also, due to the increased viscosity of the injectable substance with increasing the amount of bentonite, the forward movement of the suspension under constant pressure is reduced. This is another important parameter that leads to a reduction in the length of the injection by increasing the concentration of the bentonite slurry.
 It is also observed that the variation of penetration in higher concentrations is less than the low concentration. For example, in sand D1 (coarse sand) at a pressure height of 100 cm, the penetration rate at a concentration of 5% increases by 35% compared to a concentration of 3% and at a concentration of 7% increases by 300% compared to the sample containing 3% bentonite. This indicates that at less than 5% concentration the presence of bentonite in the sample is less effective, and the suspension can be more easily move between the pores. This result indicates that by reducing the pores inside the sand, the effect of changing to the suspension concentration is reduced. 


Figure 3. Penetration length versus pressure level for specimens with a Dr=70% in concentrations of bentonite of 3, 5 and 7% in different aggregates; a) fine sand (sand 131); b) moderate sand (sand D11); c) coarse sand (sand D1)

 

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Extended Abstract
Introduction
Dimension stones market is considered as an important and profitable sector of mineral deposit business due to their share in national economic performance. There exist a number of technical reports highlighting a lack of rock quality control in the sequence of quarrying and dimension stones production procedures, which has lowered the production efficiency and consequently the profitability of this strategic mineral industry in Iran. The quality of dimension stones depends on several factors which fractures, joints, voids and fine beddings are the most important factors that down-grade the quality. Therefore, foremost the quality and desirability of the building stone must be precisely determined by sampling, compressive strength testing and preparing microscopic sections. All of the mentioned evaluation methods are destructive. Moreover, sampling and performing multiple tests on all parts of a quarry or on all quarried stone blocks, is not possible. Detection of fractures hidden into the dimension stone blocks is achievable using fast, low-cost, accurate and non-destructive ground-penetrating radar (GPR) method. GPR is a high-resolution geophysical method which uses electromagnetic waves with high-frequency in order to map structures and detect buried objects in subsurface without coring or any destruction of the medium.
 
 
Materials and methods
In current research, GPR method has been applied to evaluate the quality of quarried travertine blocks at Haji-Abad quarry complex in Mahallat district, Markazi province, before starting any processing operation. To achieve this goal, the 2-D GPR responses of synthetic models resembling cubic dimension stone blocks containing fine layering and discontinuities, were primarily simulated using a modified 2-D finite-difference forward modeling program in the frequency-domain coded in MATLAB. Among the variety of available numerical methods, the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method has paid more attention due to having the simple understanding of the concepts, flexibility, simulation and modeling of complex environments and the acceptability of its responses in the applied cases. In this research, the simulation has been implemented for both calcareous and dolomitic rocks (including travertine and marbles) and granites. In the study area, the GPR data acquisition was carried out using a GPR system equipped with shielded 250 MHz central frequency antenna, 0.5 m antenna distance and 2 cm sampling intervals by monostatic common-offset reflection profiling method. In order to process, analyze and interpretation of data, Ground Vision and Radexplorer software were employed. The most important pre-processing and processing operations applied to the data to provide the final sections, comprising time-zero correction, dewowing (removing very low frequency components from the data), DC shift removal, Butterworth filtering, running average, background removal and types of amplitude gain.
Results and Conclusion
The results of the forward modeling show that the GPR response of fine beddings interfaces and major discontinuities hidden in the volume of dimension stone blocks are clearly detectable. Interpretation of the actual radargrams taken from a real GPR case study (Haji-Abad quarry complex) after employing various B-scan pre-processing and filtering procedures, indicates that GPR method is highly capable to detect fine beddings and discontinuities in order to evaluate the quality of dimension stone before starting any quarrying process. Validation of the obtained results of the present research was carried out on one of the blocks with a predicted large oblique joint while the existence of the large joint was proven under the cutting saw in the stone processing plant. However, it should be noted that due to the existence of inherent heterogeneity encompassing fine beddings, in addition to noises from different sources and their associated multiple reflections in real radargrams, the response of shallow major discontinuities may mask the response of minor ones located underneath or deeper, so as a result may not be detectable with routing GPR radargrams../files/site1/files/121/Ahmadi_Abstract.pdf
 
Keywords: Dimension stone Blocks (cubes); dimension stones production; Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR); Forward modeling; Quality control; Haji-Abad mining complex in Mahallat
 

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Extended Abstract
Paper pages (319-342)
Tunneling in soft grounds causes to changes in displacements and subsequently in-situ stresses around ground. These displacements may damage structural assets. Thus, estimating the magnitude and shape of settlement curve is necessary. There are several empirical and analytical methods for predicting settlement. For example, Peck’s empirical method is well known method for predicting settlement due to tunneling. Tunneling process is done by imposing volume loss in tunnel. Then, soil displacement is measured by using image processing technique and that data is fitted to Gaussian curve. By conducting tests in loose and dense sands, it is concluded that by increasing relative density of the soil, the magnitude of settlement decreases and the settlement trough width will be increased. Also soil volume loss is not the same as the tunnel volume loss.  
Introduction
Many researchers investigated settlement due to tunneling but there is a lack of research about the effect of relative density on settlement. Marshall et al. (2012) by conducting centrifuge tests in high density sandy soil, showed that settlement trough is affected by tunnel size, tunnel depth and tunnel volume loss. Zhou et al. (2014) by performing several tests in loose, medium and dense sand, examined the effect of relative density on settlement and showed that by decreasing the relative density the magnitude of settlement increases and settlement trough width will be decreased. In this paper by using 1g physical modeling (Figure 1) which is designed in Sahand University of Technology, the effect of relative density on settlement has been studied.
Material and methods
Simulation of tunnel volume loss is carried out by using two different diameter tubes as a shield and lining (Figure 2), while pulling out the larger tube volume loss is imposed. Also by changing tube diameter different volume losses have been applied. Measuring of soil displacements is achieved by image processing technique. For this purpose, different photos are taken from the whole process of the test by digital camera and by using Geo PIV, settlement of ground is determined. 
Results and discussions
Experiments were conducted in loose and dense silica sands and the measured data have been fitted to Gaussian curve. The result showed that Peck equation fitted well to surface and sub-surface settlement data. As shown in Figures 3 and 4, contour of displacement curve versus normalized tunnel depth and distance versus normalized tunnel diameter indicate that in dense sands most of the displacement occurred in the region which placed in distance of 1.25 times tunnel diameter and in loose sands in the region of 0.6 times tunnel diameter. Thus, settlement trough width in loose sands is narrower. Also by measuring soil volume loss in loose and dense sands at different levels (Figure5) it is concluded that in loose sands due to less dilation, more volume loss is transferred to higher levels.
Conclusion
The following main conclusion can be drawn:
1. Gaussian curve predicts well surface and subsurface transverse settlements but selection of its parameters requires more accuracy that may result in inaccurate prediction.
2. Settlement curve in loose sands is narrower than dense sands.
3. Displacement and soil volume loss in loose sand are more than dense sand../files/site1/files/121/Emami_Abstract.pdf
 

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Drilling and cutting stones as types of the engineering operations have encountered a lot of extensive and determining applications in different technical and engineering aspects of the mining. Estimating the drillability and cutability of stones by using drilling equipment and diamond wire saw have important roles in estimating the expenses and also designing mines. In this article some samples of carbonate ornamental stones from different mines in Iran have been studied in order to estimate and predict the drilling and also cutability rate.
In order to evaluate the effect of the textural specifications on the rate of drilling and cutability, first a picture was provided from the thin microscopic surface of every stone sample and then the area, perimeter, diameter the longest diagonal and the shortest diagonal of the grains in the sections were determined and the other textural specifications were also determined through using mathematical relations and equations. After that the relationship between the abovementioned parameters with the drilling and cutting rate were determined by using univariate fitting. And finally to achieve more correlation coefficient multivariate fitting was applied for the data. Among the textural specifications affecting the drilling rate textural coefficient, the diameter of the grain, dequi, the ratio of the grain condition and the index of grain size homogeneity had a significant relationship with the drillability rate and also among those affecting the cutting rate, textural coefficient, the diameter of the grain, dequi, density, shape factor, index of interlocking, and the index of grain size homogeneity had significant relationships with the cutting rate and at the end the final equation to predicate the drillability and cutability was produced for these parameters../files/site1/files/121/AleeiAbstract.pdf

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Introduction
The general failure mechanism of soil element in geotechnical structures is shear failure under static and dynamic loads. Therefore, assessment of soils’ shear strength parameters is very crucial in the performance of geotechnical structures, especially in slope stability. Tavakoli Mehrjardi et al. (2016) showed that by increasing soil grain size in unreinforced soil masses, bearing capacity of foundation increases due to increasing shear strength parameters of soil mass. Furthermore, Tavakoli Mehrjardi and Khazaei (2017) found out that generally, for all reinforced and unreinforced conditions, cyclic bearing capacity was enhanced by increasing the medium grains size of backfills. Taking into account the deficiency of studies on the shear characteristics of soil, a series of large direct shear test have been carried out to investigate and to compare effects of the soil’s physical properties such as aggregate size and relative density, besides of normal stress, on the shear characteristics of the backfills.
Material and Test Program
In this study, three types of uniformly graded soils as fill materials with the medium grain size (D₅₀) of 3, 6 and 12 mm were considered. These soils are classified as SP and GP in the Unified Soil Classification System. It should be mentioned that these materials can be used in railroad as ballast and in retaining walls as fill materials. The current study aims to investigate strength characteristics of the backfills, influenced by different parameters such as relative density of the fill materials, normal stress on the shear plane and aggregate size of the fill materials. To cover all the matters, 18 large-scale direct shear tests have been scheduled. These tests encompass two relative densities of fill materials (50% and 70% which represent medium dense and dense backfill, respectively), three aggregate sizes of fill materials (3, 6 and 12 mm- selected based on the scaling criteria on size of shear box) and three normal stresses (100, 200 and 300 kPa- these values cover rather low to high vertical stress in a soil element of common geotechnical projects) have been examined. It should be mentioned that, prior to shearing, the normal stress was applied to the specimens for a period of 1 h, in order to stabilize the soil particles from any possible creep. As all materials used in this research are of coarse-grained type and the experiments were performed under dry conditions, the displacement rate of 0.5 mm/min was selected. During the tests, the applied normal stress, displacement of the lower box, shear force mobilized at the interface and vertical displacements of the cap were continuously recorded.
Results and discussion
The curves of shear stress as a function of shear displacement and also shear displacement-vertical displacement for samples show that shear stress dropped down to a specific amount of residual shear strength after reaching maximum amount of shear stress . It was observed that increasing the particle size and relative density of the fill materials mostly fortify interlocking of the grains which in turn, resulted in increasing the tendency to expansion through the shear plane. On the other hand, the initial compression has decreased and dilation was started from a smaller shear displacement. This may be interpreted that as the soil particles size increases, more expansion is required to reach the maximum shear strength. Moreover, comparing the observed behavior, it is found out that unlike the effect of grain size and density, increasing the normal stress caused the materials to be more compressed, resulted in reducing expansion and increasing the initial compression of the soil mass. This conceivably means that increasing normal stress, transferred on shear plane, can change the failure mechanism of materials, from dilatancy failure to bulging failure under shearing. From the results, it was found out that increasing medium grains size of soil from 3 mm to 12 mm ended to improvement in the maximum friction angle at relative density 50 and 70% by the value up to 4.4 and 5.8 degree, respectively. In fact, due to increasing grain size, the grains interlocking have been fortified. In order to have a comparison, the maximum dilation angles of all fill materials, mobilized at the shear plane, have been derived. Accordingly, the maximum dilation angle was increased with the increment of the fill grains size and relative density of the material. Nevertheless, by considering variation of peak dilation angle with normal stress, it is found out that the normal stress had a negative influence on the advancement of interface’s dilation angle. These findings can be directly interpreted by considering the compression/expansion of the materials during the increment of shear displacements.
Conclusion
The current study, consists of 18 large-scale direct shear tests, aims to investigate shear characteristics of soil which influenced by different parameters such as relative density of the fill materials, normal stress at the shear plane and aggregate size of the fill materials. Eventually, the following conclusions are presented:

• Increasing relative density, soil particle size and normal stress have beneficial effect in shear strength improvement. But, the mechanisms of each parameter in this enhancement is different.
• The dilation rate of shear interfaces directly complies with changes in the ratio of applied shear stress to vertical stress. So, the maximum dilation angle and the maximum ratio  mobilized at the shear plane have occurred around the same shear displacement.
• Maximum values of friction and dilation angels have been occurred around the same shear displacement. Moreover, compaction effort leads to increase the required shear displacements to approach the maximum shear characteristics.

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Introduction
Local site conditions considerably influence all characteristics of the ground strong motion including the domain, frequency content, and duration. The level of such an effect could be considered as a function of geometry, properties of the materials embedded in the underlying layers, the site topography, and properties of excitement. Site effect fall into two categories: a) the effect of the surface soft layers triggered by the shear velocity differences between the soil layers and b) the surface and subsurface topography effects that lead to the wave reflection and refraction based on the site geometry, and subsequently enhance the level of amplification.
Since most cities have been constructed in the vicinity of or on sedimentary basins, geotechnical earthquake engineering devotes particular attention to effects of the sedimentary basins. Basin edge curvature deposited with soft soils are capable to trap the body waves and generated surface waves within the deposit layers. Such waves could create stronger and lengthier vibrations than those estimated in a 1D analysis that assumes the shear waves to be vertically propagated.
Although critically important, the 2D effect of the site has not been included in seismic codes and standards of the world. This might be due to the fact that the site effect depends on a number of parameters such as the site geometry, the type of wave excitement, properties of the materials, etc. that in return make it almost out of the question to make predictions about the effect. This study was an effort to compare the responses of four sedimentary basins with hypothetical geometries of rectangular, trapezoidal, elliptical, and triangular shapes in order to examine the effect of the geometrical shape of the basin on its responses and the extent of the response sensitivity to the excitation frequency of the wave. The study assumed the edge to depth proportion to be both constant and equal in all four basins so that the effect of the geometrical shape could be equally examined and compared in all four basins.      
Material and methods
In order to validate the results of the sedimentary basin modeling, firstly, ABAQUS finite element software was used to create a free field motion of a semi-circular alluvium valley in accordance with Kamalian et al. (2006) and Moassesian and Darvinsky (1987).  Then, the results from the model were compared with those from the above mentioned studies. The following descriptions are to present the model in details.
To evaluate the geometrical effect of the sedimentary basin on its response, the authors relied on the software to examine four sedimentary basins with the fundamental frequency (2.04 Hz). The basins enjoyed rectangular, trapezoidal, elliptical, and triangular geometrical shapes with a constant edge to depth proportion (49m to 300m respectively). The implicit method was also applied to perform the dynamic analysis. The materials were all viscoelastic and homogeneous. The soil behavior/treatment model was considered to be of a linear nature.  The Rayleigh damping model was used to specify the damping level. The soil element was a plane strain and SV waves (the Ricker wavelet) were used for seismic loadings in a vertical dispersion. The side boundaries (right and left) of the model were of a combinational type (viscous and free field boundaries); the down side boundary was composed of viscous. To achieve higher levels of wave absorptions, heavy columns were used as the free filed columns.
Next, it was the time to conduct the 1D analysis of the site. Three waves were in use in order to examine the effect of the frequency content of the excitation load on the basin response: 1) a wave with the dominant frequency of 1Hz that was out of the frequency range of all basins (2.04 Hz), a second wave with the dominant frequency of 2Hz that was close to the fundamental frequency of all basins, and a third wave with the dominant frequency of 4Hz. The waves were applied to a 2Dmodel. The results were compared with those obtained from a 1Dmodel in terms of the timing.
Then, the basin responses to all three waves (1, 2, and 4 Hz) were subjected to an individual analysis in order to examine the sensitivity of each basin response to its geometrical shape. Results indicated that while the responses of the rectangular and trapezoidal basins were significantly more sensitive to the excitation frequencies, the elliptical and triangular basins showed more stable behaviors to such frequencies. The final stage of the study was dedicated to examine the site 2D effect during the ground motion.
Results and Conclusions
According to the results of the present study, it could be suggested that the geometrical shape of the sedimentary basin has a significant effect on the responses of the field of seismic waves and that it could result in so different responses from the ones attained after a 1D analysis of the site. In addition, the pattern of the seismic waves’ responses is highly dependent on the geometrical shape and the frequency content of the seismic load. Also, the location where the maximum horizontal acceleration occurs along with the sedimentary basin depends on the excitation wave and varies accordingly. Further, it could be suggested that the site 2D effect results in both considerable amplification and an increase in the length of ground motion.
The results of the 2D analysis showed remarkable differences with their 1D counterparts: a 1.45 larger response for the rectangular basin, a 1.28 larger response for the trapezoidal basin, a 1.22 larger response for the elliptical basin, and a 1.19 larger response for the triangular basin.
With the frequency of 1 Hz where the excitation frequency is out of the basin range (i.e. the excitation frequency is below the lowest frequency of basin), the sedimentary basin did not show any signs of amplification and chaos (unlike two other frequencies); instead, it was a cause for de-amplification.
The frequency of 2 Hz that is subject to resonance resulted in amplifications (absent in 1D analysis) and there are traces of a reduction in the acceleration responses near to the edges of the basins. The proportion of the amplification (in the center of the basins) in 2D to 1D analysis was 1.4 for the rectangular basin, 1.28 for the trapezoidal basin, 1.22 for the elliptical basin, and 1.15 for the triangular basin.
 

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Introduction
Jet-grouting is a soil improvement technique which was originated in Japan. Jet-grouting method consist of disaggregation of soil or weak rock and its mixing with, and partial replacement by, a cement agent; the disaggregation is achieved by means of a high energy jet of a fluid which can be the cement agent itself. Jet-grouting techniques can be grouped into three main systems, which are named single, double and triple fluid, depending on the number of fluids injected into the subsoil, namely, grout (usually water–cement mixture), air and grout, and water plus air and grout. In the beginning, jet grouting was mostly viewed as a means of improving the subsoil properties for the foundations of large structures. Nowadays, its application are diversified for use in foundations, excavations, tunneling, water barriers and underpinning. This paper studies foundation improvement by jet-grouting in one of Iran northern cities and seeks the optimum design parameters for jet-grout columns in saturated and unsaturated sand. Results of cement grouting as one-fluid jet-grouting method together with site geotechnical characteristics are presented. Diameters of jet-grouted columns, uni-axial strength of soil-cement cores and core recovery index are surveyed as the most important parameters for performance assessment of improved foundation and the primary design is modified and the project completed based on the results.
Material and methods
Design parameter of jet-grout columns were assumed according to guidelines and previous expertise as followsed: single-fluid jet-grout method with 450 bar injection pressure and rod withdrawal speed of 0.5 cm/sec with a grout density of 1600 gr/cm³. Monitor rotation speed was set to 30 rpm. Soil strata consists of a 5 meter sand with some gravels followed by a 7 meter clayey silt with the average SPT numbers of 30 and 7, respectively. To investigate the effectiveness of design parameters, jet-grout columns head were uncovered by excavating its nearby soil and columns diameter were measured. Several core samples were prepared from columns with a L/D ratio of 2 and an average diameter of 74 mm by means of a triple tube core barrel after 28 days of columns installation. The volume of core samples were calculated by multiplying its length to its average cross section (calculated from the average diameter of cores) and their unit weight were obtained by dividing its weight to its volume. Uniaxial compression test conducted in the deformation-control mode with the strain rate of 1 percent on all samples. Core samples were tested in different ages from 34 to 85 days and uniaxial compression strength (UCS) of samples were corrected by age correction factor according to soil type suggested by Sližytė et al.
Results and discussion
It is observed that the average diameter of columns that are constructed in unsaturated sand with design parameters mentioned in material and methods section, is one meter and the average diameter of columns that are constructed in saturated sand with the same density as unsaturated sand is 0.8 meter. This could be due to the dissipation of fluid jet energy under the water.
The modified obtained values from uniaxial compression test show that the strength of samples varies from 28 to 90 kg/cm². By omitting the lower, an upper 5 precent of the data as irrelevant data, the average UCS of the remaining part is equal to 57 kg/cm². By applying a geotechnical safety factor of 2.5 to the modified a filtered UCS values, a UCS of 40 kg/cm² is obtained as the structural strength of get-grout column.
Conclusion
-It is observed that utilizing one-fluid jet-grout method with 450 bar injection pressure in saturated silty sand with mean SPT number 30, rod withdrawal speed of 0.5 cm/sec and grout density of 1600 gr/cm³ will result in 80 cm diameter jet-grout columns, while the same parameters will result in a 100 cm column in unsaturated sand which can be due to fluid jet energy dissipation under water.
-Considering the common design parameter for jet-grout columns in Iran, which are the same as the design parameters discussed in this paper, the UCS of get-grout columns in near shore silty sand with a safety factor of 2.5 is about 40 kg/cm². 
./files/site1/files/123/6Extended_Abstract.pdf

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Introduction
Artificial stone is a type of building material that consists of natural aggregates, binders, such as cement or polymeric resin and some additives. The aggregates used for the production of the artificial stone are generally supplied from the wastes and scraps of quarries and industrial stone manufactories. Accordingly, the produced rock has a significant economic value.
The mixing design includes more than 80% of natural aggregates and less than 20% additives and binders, such as various types of polymer resin or cement. Due to the fact that artificial stones are designed purposefully and according to engineering patterns, so the stone has different designs and colors and thus can meet the diversity of consumer desire and is an appropriate alternative for natural stones in the building industry. Due to a large number of various rock mines and industrial workshops in Iran, it has the ability to produce artificial stones.
Material and method
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of silicate aggregates on the properties of artificial stones, the aggregates of the three types of natural stone tuff, andesite and granite were selected. The basis of this selection is the mineralogical variety, the textural diversity and the easy accessibility of these three stone types. The binder used in the manufacture of these artificial stones is an unsaturated polyester resin, accounted for 11% of the samples. The crushed and graded samples were poured into the mold after mixing with resin from 85% to 15% and were subjected to a compression pressure of 12 MPa for 24 hours.
Results and discussion
The summary of the results of the experiments carried out in Table 1 is presented.
Table 1. Summary of the results of the experiments on the samples

Rock type		Water absorption percentage	Point load index	Uniaxial compressive strength	Brazilian tensile strength	Weight loss (5 cycles)
Tuff	Natural	4.84	10.57	145	21.53	-0.0172
	Artificial	11.48	6.19	63	12/66	-0.0126
Change rate		▲	▼	▼	▼	▼
Andesite	Nature	1.35	10.48	84	12.83	0.0046
	Artificial	8.47	1.83	34	5.86	-0.0417
Change rate		▲	▼	▼	▼	▲
Granite	Nature	3.01	1.82	41	10.10	-0.0032
	Artificial	0.42	3.56	51	10.34	0.0083
Change rate		▼	▲	▲	▲	▼

By reviewing the results, it can be seen that the sample of artificial granite has all the desired indices of a building stone. In comparison to natural granite, the percentage of water absorption and its weight loss is lower; conversely, the point load index, uniaxial compressive strength, and tensile strength of the Brazilian are more. Electronic image observations also show more homogeneity between resin and aggregates but on the other hand, artificial tuff and andesite haven’t got favorable indices, in comparison with natural stones.
Conclusion
The conclusion of the research can be summarized as follows:
The following results were obtained by the preparation of three samples of artificial stone from three types of natural stones: Tuff, andesite and granite, and performing physical and mechanical tests and studying the mineralogical and texture characteristics of the stones:
Mineralogical studies by a polarizing microscope and XRD irradiation analysis showed that the texture of both tuff and andesite contains unstable minerals such as opal and glass materials (amorphous), alongside other minerals. On the other hand, they have a microcrystal texture that includes abundant empty spaces. In contrast, granite is mainly composed of quartz, feldspar and biotite minerals, and the stone fabric has a coherent crystalline structure.
Artificial granite has all the desired indices in comparison to natural granite. That way, the percentage of water absorption and its lost weight are reduced; on the contrary, the point load index, uniaxial compressive strength, and Brazilian tensile strength increase. While artificial tuff and andesite’s indices are not favorable in comparison to natural stone. On the other hand, their water absorption has increased, while their resistance index is lower than the natural stone. The lost weight of these two samples also shows varying conditions.
SEM electronic images taken from the artificial granite sample show good homogeneity between resin and aggregate compared to natural granite while artificial andesite and tuff specimens show the presence of empty spaces and dispersed resin materials.
Thus, it is concluded that the artificial stone samples made from granite aggregates are more suitable for mineralogical, physical and engineering properties than andesite and tuff../files/site1/files/123/2Extended_Abstract.pdf

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Introduction
Texture coefficient (TC) is a method of quantification rock texture by using the image of rock thin sections and image analysis. Many researchers have studied the effect of TC on engineering properties in different rock types (Ozturk et al., 2014). Also, some researchers are expressed that engineering properties of sedimentary rocks are mainly influenced by rock texture (Fahy and Guccione, 1979; Ulusay et al., 1994; Eberli et al., 2003; Khanlari et al., 2016; Ajalloeian et al., 2017). Carbonate rocks which are mainly sedimentary rocks are used in many different projects in Iran. In this research by using of TC, rock texture is quantified and also effects of TC are investigated on engineering properties of some carbonate rocks.
Grain shape and size can be quantified by the length (L), width (W), area (A) and perimeter (P) which are used to formulate the tow coefficients including aspect ratio (AR) and form factor (FF). Also, packing density can be quantified by area weighting of grains (AW) which is the relative proportion of matrix and grains. Angle factor (AF) is used to quantify the angular orientation of grains that is calculated only for elongated grains. The AF is computed by class weighted system applied to acute angular differences between elongated grains (Howarth and Rowlands, 1986, 1987).
High values of these factors can be interpreted as a rock texture which influences the geotechnical properties. The quantitative assessment of rock texture is formulated by these factors in Eq. (1) (Howarth and Rowlands, 1987). 
                     Eq. (1)
where N₀ and N₁ are the numbers of grains whose aspect ratio is below and above tow, respectively; FF₀ and AR₁ are the arithmetic mean of discriminated FF and AR, respectively; and AF₁ is proposed to divide the AF value by 5 (AF₁=AF/5).
TC equation is presented to evaluate mechanical properties like strength and drillability in different rocks, but some researchers found a high correlation between TC with other engineering properties of rocks. Generally, many researchers proposed TC as a good approach of describing and classifying different rocks and predicting some engineering properties in some rocks (Howarth and Rowlands, 1987; Ersoy and Waller, 1995; Ozturk et al., 2004; Alber and Kahraman, 2009; Ozturk and Nasuf, 2013; Ozturk et al., 2014).
Material and methods
28 samples of carbonate rocks were gathered from different Formation of Iran. Rock thin section for each sample was made to calculate TC value. TC was determined by a new method of image analysis. Also, some rock mechanics tests including unit weight, water absorption, porosity, point load index, uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), slake durability index and Los Angeles abrasion loss are conducted. Rock samples are tested according to the international standard ISRM (2007). The dependent variable is engineering properties and the independent variable is TC. The best nonlinear relations with highest correlations (R²) were aimed to predict the engineering properties, to clarify the relationships between them. The efficiency of each prediction equations was investigated by the root mean square error (RMSE) and value account for (VAF). In each samples belonging to the same Formation, regression analysis has been done and compared to the results of all samples and also for UCS and previous equations presented by other researchers.
Results and discussion
There is a significant correlation between TC with some engineering properties. Highest correlation is between TC and UCS (R=0.942) and the lowest with point load index (R=0.635). Overall, when the TC increased, parameters like unit weight, point load index, USC, and durability index increased too, but water absorption, porosity, and Los Angeles abrasion decreased. Increasing TC is correlated with enhancing geomechanical properties of carbonate rocks. Improving engineering properties of rocks (like UCS, Brazilian tensile strength, Young’s modulus, density, shore hardness, porosity and point load index) by increasing TC value are presented by different researchers on different rocks (Howarth and Rowlands, 1987; Ersoy and Waller, 1995; Azzoni et al., 1996; Ozturk et al., 2004; Alber and Kahraman, 2009; Ozturk and Nasuf, 2013; Ozturk et al., 2014). However, in this research, data is limited to carbonate rocks that are abundant sedimentary rocks. Some researcher mentioned that geomechanical properties of sedimentary rocks are mainly influenced by texture (e.g. Fahy and Guccione, 1979; Ulusay et al., 1994; Eberli et al., 2003). In addition, It is mentioned that the strength of carbonate rocks are related to the various textural parameters (Tugrul and Zarif, 2000; Torok and Vasarhelyi, 2010; Jensen et al., 2010; Ajalloeian et al., 2016). Carbonate rocks don't have varied mineralogy's, but the texture in these rocks could be variable.
Results show that the highest correlation index is between TC and UCS and its correlate according to the other investigation (Howarth and Rowlands, 1987; Ozturk et al., 2004). TC equation doesn’t cover all the criteria of rock texture, but it has a good correlation with some engineering properties of carbonate rocks. It can be possible to predict UCS, density and water absorption with VAF accuracy with more than 70 percent and lowest RMSE. TC can be showed some engineering properties of carbonate rocks. Therefore, it can be used in the preliminary design of the project for rock mechanic purposes and obviously, time and cost will be reduced. Moreover, it is very useful for a situation that suitable and enough samples cannot be extracted. It is important that rock samples don’t have any alteration and weathering of minerals and macroscopic heterogeneity.
 
 
Conclusion
In this research, the effect of texture coefficient as a factor that represents the texture of rocks on physical, mechanical and durability properties of carbonate rocks in some parts of Iran was evaluated. Furthermore, it is a time-consuming process to determine the TC of rock, but preparing rock thin sections and microscopic analyses are a part of the preliminary studies in engineering geology. When image analysis methods which are used to determine TC, the time is shortened and accuracy will be increased. TC can be calculated simply by image analysis, but it doesn't cover all the criteria of rock texture. In addition, in TC equation, some factors play an important role, but some factors don’t have a direct effect, and these factors are not fully acknowledged in the original concept of TC. TC equation is presented to evaluate mechanical properties like strength and drillability in different rocks, but some researchers found a high correlation between TC with other engineering properties of rocks. The results indicate that TC value has a direct correlation with UCS, density, durability index and point load index and also, has a reverse correlation with water absorption, Los Angeles abrasion loss and porosity. The strong relationship is between TC and UCS (R²=0.92) and the weak relationship is between TC and porosity (R²=0.58). With regression analysis and TC value, it could be predicted UCS, density and water absorption with accuracy more than 70% VAF which considering previous equations and the proposed equation obtained from this research for UCS., it is showed that although the same trend exists, the noticeable difference is available. However, more studies are needed for investigating by more samples and different rock types and statistical analysis. 
./files/site1/files/123/7Extended_Abstract.pdf

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Introduction
Safety and sustainability of infrastructures which were placed in or on rock mass mainly control by geometrically size distribution and physical and mechanical characteristics of rock blocks that is created by intersection of discontinuities. hence identification of rock blocks has a key role in mechanical analysis and hydraulic behaviour of jointed rock mass. Detection process of blocks have many applications in rock mechanic which could be referred to their use in the numerical methods like discrete element method or in analysis of continuous deformation of discontinuities. As pioneer researchers, Goodman and Shi, Warburton and Heliot could be known as leaders in the field of diagnosis of rock mass blocks. Warburton provides a method based on geometric parameters of rock mass and developed a software based on it. Warburton in his work assumed discontinuities as parallel and infinite. In the earlier works, discontinuities were considered as infinite panes. So, just convex blocks were distinguishable. Concave blocks were diagnosis in more detailed researches that is created by finite discontinuities. Basically, methods based on finite planes was classified into two branches. Aforementioned branches were based on blocks detection based on topology concepts and assemble of block elements. Lin at al. presented detection method that assumed discontinuities as finite planes and worked based on topology theory. This method could realize convex and concave blocks of rock mass. Ikegawa and Hudson, Jing presented the similar methods using more accurate process. Sharma et al. presented an equation for calculating the volume of rock blocks in their work. Ferreira provided a method based on graph theory which is better than other method considering time and complicity. Based on this method, firstly vertices were detected in two dimensions and then created a graph based in vertices and edges which in next step constitute polygons that are form in two-dimension blocks. In the present research, it is developed high-speed algorithms to identify the blocks. New method was developed in MATLAB software that by assuming infinite discontinuities and inclusion of a set of joints. we have identified created blocks and calculated their volume and at last block volume histogram were draw that paves the way to obtain their distribution function.
Material and methods
Infinite planes are used to simulate of discontinuities.in this study, each discontinuity is represented by a plane in a three-dimensional Euclidean space. To identify the block, a certain volume of rock mass space should be considered as study region. The studied volume is called domain. By the intersection of discontinuity planes in space, rocky blocks are created in the domain. First, vertices should be recognized at first as first step in block detection. Then, edges are diagnoses and after that it's time to specify the polygons and finally, polyhedron or blocks are obtained by joining edges together. Each vertex in space is created by the intersection of three nonparallel planes. In fact, the vertex is the interface of three planes in the Euclidean space. The next element in the block metric process is the diagnosis of the edges or the blocks' edges. All edges are sections on the lines which created by the intersection of the planes in space. first the parallel vector of all the lines resulting from the intersection of the pair of planes is obtained.
After detection of edges, it’s time to identify polygons that form key element of blocks. Each polygon of a block is formed from their constituent unit. In this step, polygons belong to each discontinuity plane is identified separately. Some edges are determined that are start from the end of selected edge between other edges. In this state, if there is just one edge, that edge is record as the next edge of first polygon. If there is more than one edge from the edge of the selected edges, the angle is calculated between each possible of end edge with the selected edge.
In the next step, it’s time to diagnosis polyhedrons that have created by discontinuities intersection. In the previous step, possible polygons were obtained for each discontinuity. In this stage, it is used the principle which is designed this algorithm that two polygons that formed a block have a common edge. So, the first polygon of first discontinuity is consider as first polygon of first block to recognize block.
Results and discussion
According to the developed algorithm, MATLAB software was used to model the discontinuities. The computational and graphic capabilities of this software have created a lot of attractions for most researchers to use its potential. The strengths of this software are high computing power with its graphical accuracy. The code developed in MATLAB is called RockBlock2 that is designed using a graphical user interface (GUI) to make it easy to use. To illustrate how the program works, there are 29 discontinuities given to the program. The program first takes the dip and dip direction of discontinuities along with the desired point on it and calculates the parameters that make up the equation of discontinuity planes.
Input data is stored in a separate Excel file that was previously introduced to the program. In the next step, the program attempts to identify the vertices. The program stores the coordinates of each corner, with the assignment of a number to it, in the matrix of the corners, which is in fact the Excel file that was previously introduced to the program to use in the next steps, after recognizing vertices on the area.
Identifying the edges is the next step that the program done. At this stage, the program begins to identify each single edge using the data from the previous step that means the coordinates of the corners and the algorithm defined.
The coordinates of the beginning and end of each edge along with its number are stored and maintained in the edge matrix in the Excel file format. In the stage of identifying the polygons, the polygons are formed by joining the edges together. This matrix is a special matrix that its matrix matrices are matrix itself. The matrix of polygons is a row matrix; whose number is the number of discontinuities. Because, as it mentioned in the chapter of the algorithm, the polygons are found by separation of discontinuities. Therefore, each column of the polygons matrix is consisting of faces that are on a certain discontinuity.
The next step begins the process of identifying the blocks, or the same polygons by the program. At this step, the program starts the identification process using the features found in the previous step and the algorithm defined for it. At this stage, the identified blocks are stored in the blocks matrix. By identifying blocks, the program calculates the volume of each block and finally draw its volume histogram. In fact, a volume histogram is presented to illustrate how the block volume is distributed. Obtaining the distribution of blocks or, in other words, achieving a block probability distribution function is an essential step in the behavior of rock mass. Because one of the most important consequences of the presence of discontinuities is the fragmentation of the rock material under the block intervals. By having the block distribution function, it is possible to produce a blockbuster method using random methods, such as Monte Carlo, and to analyze it in various and arbitrary modes.
Conclusion
To identify and study the rocky blocks created by discontinuities, a hierarchical algorithm was designed and developed in MATLAB software. This algorithm identifies and records blocks, consisting of blocks, edges, and facets of the blocks forming components, including stone blocks. This algorithm, which is written for user-friendly ease with the use of graphical coding capabilities, shows a very fast performance using the parallel computing power of MATLAB software. The developed code calculates the dip and dip direction of discontinuities using the geometric properties, and calculates the blocks created in three dimensions and calculates their volume. This histogram code displays the calculated volumes.
The results show that the developed code with its fast performance, while identifying the blocks, calculates and records their volumes without errors. The ability to display the step-by-step process of identifying blocks is one of the clear features of this code. Information about edge is also records and is available for auxiliary applications. Histogram of block volume is one of the most important results of the developed code, which can have different applications.
Identification of created rocky blocks is used both in the stability analysis and rock mass simulations such as Discrete Fracture Network modeling. Determination of block volume distribution function which is done using histogram is one of the most important uncertainties in three-dimensional rock masses behavior that can play a key role in optimizing the design of structures involved in rock mass. Therefore, considering the key role of blocks volume, identifying and calculating block volumes and, consequently, plotting their histogram and determining the distribution function governing them, has a key role in the static and dynamic analysis of rock base structures. ./files/site1/files/123/1Extended_Abstract.pdf

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Introduction
In many areas of the world, the mechanical properties of soils for utilization of land are not sufficient. For improvement of these lands, soil stabilization such as compacting, installation of nails, elders of piles, mixing soil with lime or cement before or during constructions on the surface or inside of the ground can be useful. Microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), due to its versatility and stable performance, has been recently attracted the attention of many researchers in the field of the geotechnical engineering around the world. MICP is a biological technique that is naturally caused to create a cementation agent, which is known as calcium carbonate or calcite by controlling the metabolism of bacteria. Although there are many biological processes that can be lead to MICP, but the using of urea hydrolysis by bacteria is commonly used more. In this method, aerobic bacteria with the enriched urease enzymes inject into the soil. Hydrolysis of urea occurs when the bacteria speeds up the hydrolysis reaction to produce ammonium and carbonate ions. In the presence of soluble calcium ions, carbonate ions are precipitated and formed the calcium carbonate crystals. When these crystals are formed on a grain of soil or like a bridge between them, they prevent the movement of grains and thus improve the mechanical and geotechnical properties of the soil.
Material and methods
In the present study, the effect of increasing fines on the improvement of Anzali sandy soil, and soil resistance parameters for improving the clean sand and its mixtures with a fine grained cohesive soil and a fine grained cohesionless soil separately in a percentage weight of 30 by MICP and using a small scale of direct shear test (6×6) have been investigated. In the present study the sandy soil was collected from the coast of Bandar Anzali Free Zone and for the preparation of samples of clayey sand and silty sand, Kaolinite clay soils and Firouzkooh broken silt were used, respectively. Anzali sand is poorly graded and had a rounded corner with an average particle size of 0.2 mm, somewhat, sharpening cores are also found in its granulation. In addition, its fine grained content is very small (less than 1%). The Kaolinite clay is also labeled with a liquid limit of 40, a plastic limit of 25, and a plasticity index of 15 as an inorganic clay (CL). The used microorganism in this study is urease positive Sporosarcina pasteurii, which is maintained with the number of PTCC1645 at the Center Collective of Industrial Microorganisms of Iran Scientific and Research Organization. The bacterium was cultured in a culture medium containing 20 g/l yeast extract and 10 g/l ammonium chloride at pH 9 under aerobic conditions in incubator shaker machine at 150 rpm and temperature of 30 °C. The organism was grown to late exponential/early stationary phase and stored at 4 °C before injection in samples. A solution of calcium chloride and urea with a molar ratio of one is also used as a cementation solution. With the direct shear test (6cm×6cm) as a benchmarking of the shear strength in the before and after improvement steps, molds fitted with a shear box made of the galvanized sheet with a thickness of 0.6 mm and it consists of two main parts, the body,  in the middle of which an exhaust pipe was embedded in the injector waste fluid. At the bottom of the samples, a layer of filter paper was placed in order to prevent soil washes, and then all samples with a thickness of 2 cm, with a relative density of 30% at the same weight and height were pressed. In the upper part of the samples, a layer of filter paper is similarly used to prevent the discontinuity of soil particles when injected biological materials are used. Biological solutions are injected from the top to the specimens and allowed to penetrate under the influence of gravitational and capillary forces in the sample and discharge the inhaled fluid from the exhaust pipe. The criterion for determining the volume of the solution to inject into each sample is the pure volume (PV) of soil. The preparation process of the samples was initiated by injection of a PV water unit, followed by a two-layer mixture of bacterial suspensions and cementation solutions, each with a volume of one PV, and then for biological reactions, 24 hours to the sample at laboratory temperature (25 ± 2) is given. After the time of incubation, the solution of cementation is injected into the sample for a period of three days and every 24 hours. The processing time of samples is also considered 28 days. In this study, optical density (OD) was selected as a benchmark for estimating the concentration of bacterial cells in the culture medium, and in all stages of development, and precisely before injection of bacteria suspension into soil samples, it was measured by a spectrophotometer device at 600 nm (OD₆₀₀) wavelength, which was obtained for all bacterial suspensions in the range of 1.7 to 2 before the injection. To determine the activity of urea bacteria, 1 ml of bacterial suspension was added to nine milliliters of 1.11 molar urea solution, and by immersing the electrode of the electrical conductivity in the solution, its conductivity was recorded for 5 minutes at 20 ± 2 ° C. The rate of urea activity in the pre-treatment stage for all specimens was in the range of 0.8 to 1.23 mS min^-1. In order to evaluate the shear strength parameters of soil samples, before and after the improvement operations, a direct shear test was used based on the ASTM D3080 standard. This test was performed for all samples under stresses of 50, 100 and 150 kPa in undrained conditions at a loading speed of 1 mm/min up to a strain of 15%. Also, samples of soil with a moisture content of 7% and a relative density of 30% (as already mentioned) have been restored. SEM analysis was carried out to determine the distribution of sediment between soil particles and EDX analysis in order to identify carbonate calcium sediment formation elements in improved soil samples, by scanning electron microscopy on Anzali sandy soil samples in before and after improvement conditions.
 
 
Conclusions
The effect of the increasing cohesive and cohesionless fines on the bio-treated process of sandy soil is the main subject of this research. For this purpose, three samples of clean sand, sand containing 30% clay and sand mixture with 30% silt in a relative density of 30% were treated with MICP method and their shear strength parameters were evaluated by direct shear test after 28 days of processing. Using the direct shear test and analyses of SEM and EDX data, the results are represented as below:
1.  The microbial sediment of carbonate calcium has greatly improved the resistance properties of all three soil samples.
2. A sample of clayey sand, in spite of a higher improvement compared to the other samples with an average shear strength of 113.7% in comparison to to its untreated state, it has the lowest shear strength among the three improved samples.
3. Increasing the clay content of 30% increases the soil voids. On the other hand, it reduces the friction angle and shear strength of the soil in the pre-treated state and also facilitates easier movement of the bacteria between the pores in the soil. More favorable distribution of sediment calcium carbonate was occurred and, as a result, increased adhesion between soil particles.
4. The increase of cohesionless fine particles creates more bonding points between sand particles and, therefore, calcium carbonate crystals form shorter distances between the soil bridges. As a result, with the end of the improvement process, the shear strength parameters of the sandy soil containing 30% of the silt compared to the clean sand have a higher value.
5. SEM images of the clean sand in both before and after improvement show that the calcium carbonate precipitation occurred with a uniform and thin layer that surrounds sand grains and another part of the sediments formed in the joint of grains.
6. Cube-shaped crystalline sediments confirm that the sediment formed in the soil is a stable type of calcite and that the relative increase in the friction angle of the improvement samples can be attributed to solid particles and multifaceted sediments. Also, the elements of carbon, oxygen, and calcium, which are the main components for the formation of calcium carbonate deposits, have been found in the EDX analysis of improvement sand samples../files/site1/files/124/7sohrabi%DA%86%DA%A9%DB%8C%D8%AF%D9%87.pdf
 

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Introduction
It is very important to have knowledge on the rock deformation modulus when designing geotechnical ‎structures and modeling oil reservoirs. In general, there are two destructive or static and non-‎destructive or dynamic methods for determining the rock deformation modulus, but considering the ‎time and cost of destructive methods proportionate to the depth, it is more common to make use of ‎non-destructive approaches. The outcrops of Asmari Formation are widely spread in the west and ‎southwest of Iran, and many engineering projects have been constructed or are being studied ‎on this formation. Therefore, it is of great importance to study on the geomechanical characteristics of this ‎formation. Presentation of empirical relations regarding the relationship between static and dynamic ‎moduli, with respect to the studies carried out in other parts of the world and the dispersion and ‎independence of studies done on Asmari Formation due to its large extent on one hand and the ‎importance of this formation in terms of oil and development civil projects on the other hand, necessitate ‎presenting a comprehensive criterion resulted from all studies carried out on Asmari Formation which ‎can express the relationship between the static and dynamic moduli. This paper represents the ‎relationship between the dynamic and static moduli of the site using the moduli obtained by the ‎down-hole geophysical method and the static moduli obtained by the intact rock test results of ‎Ghalajeh tunnel located in Asmari Formation in Ilam province. Then, a comprehensive relation is ‎presented to express the relationship between static and dynamic modulus by studying the previous ‎researches and criteria on this formation.
Material and methods
Two sets of tests were conducted to determine the relationship between static and dynamic moduli in the Ghalajeh tunnel. First, a uniaxial compression strength test was performed on 13 cores taken from three boreholes to compute the elasticity modulus in accordance with ISRM standard. Then, down-hole test was conducted on two boreholes such that to determine the dynamic modulus using compressive and shear wave velocities. Seismographic apparatus of ABEM RAS 24 as well as three-component down-hole geophones were utilized in order to plot the seismic profile. After the performing the tests, the dynamic modulus of deformation was calculated using the velocity of P-waves and the density of the host rock.
Discussion and Conclusions
By conducting in-situ static and dynamic laboratory tests on Ghalajeh Tunnel project and determining the values ​​of the static and dynamic deformation moduli, a relation was presented between them. Then, taking into consideration the previous models studied in Asmari Formation, a comprehensive criterion was presented for wider use in the mentioned formation. Given the root mean square error (RMSE) and variance account for (VAF), the values predicted using the proposed comprehensive model have acceptable accuracy. In the interim, the correction factor between dynamic and static moduli in Asmari Formation was between 0.8 and 2.4. The results show that, in general, the relationship between static and dynamic moduli is linear up to a certain range (static modulus of 100 MPa) and then it has a power trend./files/site1/files/124/4darai%DA%86%DA%A9%DB%8C%D8%AF%D9%87.pdf

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In a perforated well, fluids enter the wellbore through arrays of perforation tunnels. These perforations are typically distributed in a helical pattern around the wellbore. Available numerical models to simulate production flow into cased-and-perforated vertical wells have complicated boundary conditions or suffer from high computational costs. This paper presents a simple and at the same time efficient finite element model to simulate flow around a well with helically symmetric perforations. In the proposed model, by taking advantage of the symmetry, only a thickness of perforated interval containing a single perforation tunnel needs to be meshed. Angular phasing between adjacent perforations is considered by applying periodic boundary conditions on the upper and lower boundaries of the representative reservoir thickness. These boundary conditions involve periodic-pressure and periodic-velocity parts. Unlike the periodic-pressure part, the method of imposing the periodic-velocity condition within a single-variable flow problem is rather vague. In this regard, it is proved that in the proposed model, periodic-velocity condition is automatically satisfied in a weak sense. The accuracy and the computational efficiency of the proposed model are verified through comparison with available models. The model results, in terms of skin factor, are compared with the common semi-analytical model as well, and good agreement is obtained. The proposed model can readily be used as a numerical tool to study inflow of wells with helically symmetric perforations.
 

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Introduction
Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a high-resolution geophysical method which uses electromagnetic waves with high-frequency in order to map structures and objects buried in subsurface without any destruction of the medium. In present research, choice of optimum parameters of real data acquisition for this method has been studied. The governed behavior on the GPR fields can be simulated by solving the Maxwell’s equations and the appropriate boundary conditions that form the basis of electromagnetic theory. Among the variety of available numerical methods, the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method has paid more attention due to having the simple understanding of the concepts, flexibility, simulation and modeling of complex environments and the acceptability of its responses in the applied cases. The purpose of this study is to identify what reasonable information can be obtained from field data under different environmental conditions and different survey parameters.
 
Materials and methods
To achieve the goal, first forward modeling of GPR data has been carried out for several synthetic models corresponding to common targets in subsurface installations, using 2-D finite-difference time-domain method by means of GPRMAX, ReflexW and Radexplorer softwares. The main purpose of the simulations is investigation of the effect of survey parameters such as spatial sampling intervals (trace interspacing) and temporal sampling frequency on the GPR response of targets with various physical and geometrical parameters. Also to select and design the most appropriate conditions and survey parameters for real GPR data, numerous field traverses were performed in Isfahan University of Technology campus over the pre-known buried cylindrical targets containing power cable, petro-gas pipe, water pipeline and waste water pipeline with diverse host media. In this operation due to having one monostatic GPR system equipped by shielded antenna with central frequency of 250 MHz, some of the survey parameters containing central frequency, antenna separation and antenna directivity are invariant. The most important investigated survey parameters are temporal sampling frequency, spatial sampling distance (trace intervals), time window and number of stacked traces.
 
Results and discussion
Regarding carried out investigations through field data acquisition, in only one case the GPR system failed to detect any understated targets which this mode is related to choice a sampling distance of 1 cm and a sampling frequency of 504 MHz. The sampling frequency of 504 MHz is just capable to detect the surface water pipeline (due to its low burial depth). Also only in three cases the GPR system is capable to detect all subsurface targets so that the first mode of the trace interval is 2 cm and the sampling frequency is 1954 MHz, whereas in the latter two, the trace interval is 1 cm and the sampling frequencies have been selected 1563 and 1954 MHz. At the end success or failure of the targets detection was investigated on the basis of selected survey parameters and the probability of successful target detection was determined depending on the temporal and spatial sampling frequency so that the maximum probability of target detection is regarding to temporal sampling frequency of 1954 MHz and trace interval of 1 cm. Regarding GPR field data acquisition, considering the relations between the central frequency of GPR measurement systems, the depth of penetration and resolution, the diversity of materials and various components of the host media of targets and their surface overburdens a range of dierse equipments with a variety of frequencies is needed, which all of them are not generally available.
 
Conclusion
As a general conclusion of this study, in order to reduce the risk in GPR data acquisition operation, optimal survey parameters are suggested as follows:
The sampling frequency should be about 7 to 8 times the central frequency of the employed system (should not be less than this value in order to avoid aliasing and on the other hand, due to reduction in the amount of data and thus the memory needed for storage and processing), trace interspacing equal to 1 cm (in order to detect all buried targets especially targets with small size), the number of stacked traces equal to 16 (to reduce the amount of computer memory required for processing and storing data) and time window according to the computational-empirical relation (1).
                                                                                                                                                                (1)
Where W is time window, D is the maximum depth and V is the minimum velocity.
The results of this research are not restricted to the investigated case, but in practice are applicable for cases with similar host environments, especially in urban areas (which application of non-destructive methods such as GPR is necessary)../files/site1/files/131/6Extended_Abstract(1).pdf

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Introduction
Improving the mechanical behavior of clay soil by stabilization agents is a mean of fulfilling geotechnical design criteria. The method of stabilization can be divided into chemical, mechanical, or a combination of both methods. Chemical stabilization is performed by adding chemical agents such as cement, lime or fly ash to the soil (Bahar et al., 2004). Soil reinforcement is one of the mechanical methods that is used for improving the behavior of soils (Tang et al., 2007). Reinforcement of soil achieved by either inclusion of strips, bars, grids and etc. within a soil mass in a preferred direction or mixing discrete fibers randomly with a soil mass.
Mixing of cement with soil is made a production that is called soil-cement and results in chemical reaction between soil, cement, and water. The compressive strength of soil-cement is increased by increasing the cement content and this leads to brittle behavior or sudden failure. On the other hand, by increasing the cement to soil ratio for cohesive soils, shrinkage micro-cracks may develop in the soil as a result of the loss of water content during drying or hydration of cement. Therefore, if the tensile strength of these materials is not sufficient cracks will develop under loading and damage will be resulted (Khattak and Alrashidi, 2006). Consoli et al. (2003) and Tang et al. (2007) indicated that adding the fiber to soil can prevent from occurrence of these cracks and increases the tensile strength of the soil.
The focus of this paper is on the statistical analysis of the results and development of regression models. Regression relationships are developed based on the experimental results that were presented by Estabragh et al. (2017). These relationships relate the compressive and tensile strengths of the soil to percent of used fiber, cement and curing time.
Material and methods of testing
Unconfined compression and tensile strength tests were carried on unreinforced and reinforced soil, soil cement according to ASTM standards. Samples of soil-cement were made by mixing a clay soil and two different weight percent of cement (8 and 10%). Reinforced soil samples were also prepared by mixing 0.5 and 1 weight percent of Polypropylene fibers with 10, 15, 20 and 25 mm lengths. The dry unit weight and water content of prepared samples were the same as optimum water content and maximum dry unit weight that were resulted from standard compaction test. The compressive and tensile strength tests were conducted on the samples by considering the curing time according to ASTM standards until the failure of the sample is achieved.
Results and discussion
The experimental tests showed that reinforcement of the soil and soil cement increase the peak compressive and tensile strength. The peak compressive strength of reinforced soil is increased by increasing the fiber content at a constant length of the fiber. It can be said that by increasing the percent of fiber, the number of fibers in the sample is increased and contact between soil particle and fibers is increased which result in increase in the strength (Maher 1994). However, by increasing the length of the constant fiber inclusion there will be no significant increase in strength because the number of shorter fiber is more than longer fiber in a specific sample (Ahmad et al., 2010). Inclusion of fibers can greatly increase the tensile strength of clay soil. In addition to reinforcement of soil cement showed the same trend. When fiber is added to soil cement, the surface of fiber adheres to the hydration products of cement and some clay particle. Therefore, this combination increases the efficiency of load transfer from the composition to the fibers which increase the peak strength (Tang et al., 2007). In addition, the tensile strength shows the same trend.
Based on the experimental data on the behavior of a randomly reinforced clay soil and soil cement multiple regression models (linear and non-linear) were developed for calculating the peak compressive and tensile strength (dependent variables) based on the value of the coefficient of determination (R²). The proposed regression models were functions of independent variables including weight percent of fiber, length of fiber (length/diameter of fiber), weight percent of cement, and curing time. Finally, the comparison is made between the predicted results from proposed models and experimental results. In order to investigate the model accuracy, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE) are used.
 The Multiple Linear Regression models (MLR) was very suitable for the study of the effect of independent variables on the quantitative analytic dependent variable. The NRSME for peak compressive and tensile strength is was 3.59% and 5.11% respectively for these models. Also, the Multiple Nonlinear Regression models (MNLR) had a much lower error than the linear model because of the quadratic equation, the equation will be able to predict the increase and decrease of the output variable in terms of the increase of the independent input variable. Therefore, The NRMSE for peak compressive and tensile strength was 1.02% and 4.04% for MNLR models respectively.
Conclusion
The following conclusions can be drawn from this study:
- The strength of reinforced soil and soil cement is increased by increasing the fiber content.
- Increasing the length of the fibers in the soil and soil cement has no significant effect on increasing the peak compressive strength, but it will be effective in increasing the tensile strength.
- The Multiple Nonlinear Regression models (MNLR) have more accuracy for prediction of output variable (peak strength) because of lower normalized root mean square error../files/site1/files/131/7Extended_Abstract.pdf


 

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Introduction
Raft foundations are generally used to support buildings and structures, with or without basements, in dry or high ground water table conditions. When the shallow subsoil conditions are unfavorable (unsafe bearing capacity or excessive settlements) then load bearing piles can be used for transferring the total loads to more competent soil layers. In many cases, the maximum and differential settlements are the controlling factors to the selection of composite foundations systems including piles and raft. The piled raft foundation contains three elements of load-bearing; namely piles, raft and the underlying soil mass. Matching their relative stiffness, raft foundation distributes the whole load is transferred from the superstructure to the top soil and the connected piles. In foundation design, the idea of combining mat foundation and deep foundations as a new option in the topic of foundation engineering has been raised in recent years. The use of deep foundations under mat foundations (Piled-raft Foundation) can leads to reduce the settlement and the effect of bearing capacity. In conventional design of piled foundations, it was usually postulated that the overall load is supported by the piles. In composite foundation systems, raft contribution is taken to confirm the bearing capacity in ultimate moment and the serviceability of all over system.
Material and methods
Composite piled-raft foundations including pile and raft have been considered in this research. Knowing the performance of composite piled raft systems is important because of the fact that the decreasing role of differential settlement and piles plays the role of supporting the underlying soil and increasing the load bearing capacity of the soil. A case study has been used to analyzing the performance of piles and shallow foundation systems in this study. For this purpose, the finite element PLAXIS 3D foundation software is used to analyze the foundation deformation. Raft foundation with a thickness of 0.3m and dimensions of 6 × 6m, which is located on a uniform sandy soil mass, and depth of raft from the soil surface is 2 m. Piles with a circular section of length 10 m, a thickness of 0.5 m and with 9 numbers below and within soil are located. Groundwater level is not considered, which actually indicates that the water level is outside of the 25m thick layer of the sand. In this research, deformation of foundation, moment applied on foundation and also the contribution of piles in the bearing of combined system under static loading in sandy soil for the various of pile lengths 7m to 13m and different thickness of raft 0.3m to 1m in the piled-raft foundations regarding connection of raft and piles, has been analyzed.
Results and discussion
The obtained results indicate that the first to third layouts in the optimal system where the central piles are longer, the settlement has had a maximum decline. A comparison of the default composite system with a 10 meter pile length and an optimal proposed system illustrates that the optimal system in the first and fourth layouts reduces differential settlement of raft in relation to the default system. Applying variations in pile lengths the optimal system has led to a reduction in the amount of bending moment applied to the raft in all layouts. Composite systems with the first, second and third layout, optimize system utilization effect on increasing the share of piles bearing. But in the fourth, with the optimum layout of the composite piled-raft system share of piles bearing to the total load on the same analogy in the basic system, the less value has been raised this argument that the position of the scattered placement of piles are the reason for this issue. The raft thickness of the composite system is another parameter whose performance has been measured against the raft settlement. With the increase in the maximum amount of raft thickness increases the settlement which of course this increasing is small and very different thickness is not notable. By increasing the raft thickness, reducing the differential settlement is sensible but the major settlement reduction in the thickness of 0.3m to 0.5m has been occurred. With increasing the raft thickness the value of the moment has been increased. This moment increasing in the piled-raft system with disconnected piles over other systems in the primary thickness, moment is created about 60 kN and the raft thickness 1m, this moment value has reached more than 100 kN, as well as, by increasing the raft thicknesses, the amount of load share of the piles to the total load increased, significantly.
Conclusion
The following conclusions were drawn from this research.
-Use a long piles in the center and the shorter piles about the raft reduce the maximum settlement, differential settlement and significant reduction of the raft foundation moment, and beside these, piles bearing the composite piled-raft system is increased.
By increasing the raft thickness increases the maximum settlement, mean settlement, bending moment of raft has been increased. The positive effects of increasing the thickness of raft foundation is reducing the differential settlements and increasing the pile contributions in the bearing. This result has been expected due to increasing the raft mass and rigidity.
-The combined piled-raft system utilizes connected and disconnected piles to the raft and detached from it simultaneously to improve the expected indices../files/site1/files/132/4Extended_Abstracts.pdf
 

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Introduction
Past research studies have demonstrated that seismic ground motion can vary significantly over distances comparable to the dimensions of long span engineering structures. The accurate determination of earthquake ground motion at the base of long span structures such as dams and bridges whose piers are located on the valleys surface is one of the most important issues in earthquake engineering. In this paper, the spatially variable earthquake ground motions are generated at stations located on the valley slopes, considering the topography effect of a triangular valley. To this end, the simplified geometry of the valley of Masjed Soleyman embankment dam has been used for numerical modeling. The spatially varying ground motions are simulated by using spectral representation method. According to this methodology, the generated time histories are compatible with prescribed response spectra reflecting the wave passage and loss of coherence effects. This method assumes that the response spectrum is identical for all stations i.e., they have the same amplitudes and frequency content. This assumption is not valid for stations located on valley surface in which the amplitude and frequency content of the seismic waves are changed considerably by topography features. It is concluded that the proposed method in this study can lead to artificial spatially variable earthquake ground motions which can be readily reflect the amplification pattern of 2D triangular valleys.
Material and methods
In the first part of this paper, seismic response of a triangular valley is investigated through time history analysis conducted by using FLAC2D computer program. The geometry of the valley analyzed in this paper is chosen close to the valley of the Masjed Soleyman embankment dam. Dynamic analysis is conducted using an artificial earthquake generated by spectral representation method. The material properties are obtained based on the results of a comprehensive study carried out to identify the dynamic characteristics of two large embankment dams in Iran. Spectral amplification functions of seismic waves are calculated by dividing the response spectra of stations located on the slope of the valley to that in base of the valley. These functions are then used as target quantity for generation of spatially variable ground motions at points located on the valley. In this study, spectral representation method, the most widely accepted method for generation of spatially variable ground motions, is developed to take into account the topography effect. According to this methodology, the generated time histories are compatible with prescribed spectral amplification functions reflecting the wave passage and loss of coherence effects. The Harichandran-Vanmarcke coherency model is used to simulate spatially variable seismic ground motions.
Results and discussion
Based on the obtained results the maximum and minimum values of peak acceleration are yielded at the base and at the edge of the valley, respectively. The results indicate considerable increase of the acceleration RMS at points near the edge of the valley. Maximum spectral amplification is also observed at the edge of the valley. For all points located on the valley, the first peak spectral amplification occurred at frequency of 1.15Hz, which can be readily interpreted as the natural frequency of the valley. In order to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed method, the RMS and spectral amplification functions of artificial earthquakes are compared to target quantities. A very good consistency between the spectral amplification of artificial earthquakes and target spectral amplifications was observed in terms of both amplitude and frequency content.
Conclusion
The following conclusions were drawn from this paper.
- Artificial earthquakes generated using proposed method of this paper are in a very good agreement with the amplification pattern of the valley.
- The results of this study can be readily used to investigate the influence of spatial variability of earthquake ground motion on structures like bridges and dams whose supports are located inside the valley and are subjected to multi-support earthquake excitation.
- The proposed method of this paper is not limited only to the valley topography, but it can be effectively used in the generation process of non - uniform artificial earthquakes for stations located on other topography features. The latter can be carried out by establishing the spectral amplification functions of other topography features such as slopes and hills resulted from field or numerical studies.

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Introduction
The nature of near-field earthquake records is very complicated and uncertain. Due to this complexity, the prediction of the real structural responses has become very difficult. Based on the analysis of the physical characteristics of near-field records, it is possible to use the simplified mathematical models. Near-field ground motions which are often associated with a progressive directional phenomenon due to their particular type of the causative fault, have much more destructive effects on the structures than the other quake tremors. The related research results show that under the influence of a strong near-field ground motion which contains forward directivity effects, the structural responses would be entered to a great nonlinear domain. On the other hand, due to the limited number of available near-field records, it is needed to prepare artificial acclerograms which can simulate the characteristics of the strong ground motions. Thus, it is possible to achieve a vast data base corresponding to wide range of powerful ground motions using mathematical wavelets. As a result, it provides a general overview of these types of artificial quake tremors and prepares an extended knowledge on the performance of structures in confronting these destructive movements.
Material and methods
The results obtained from the seismological studies on strong near-field records indicate that the most of these tremors contain large amounts of kinetic energy corresponding to the content of low frequency band. Additionally, by ignoring the high-frequency band the coherent velocity pulses can be detected with acceptable accuracy. In order to separate the high and low frequency bands, the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method is used based on programming in MATLAB software. Various methods have been proposed for simulation of near-field records which most of them is based on using harmonic functions and the spectral assessment of the low frequency band of earthquake records.
In this regards, one of the best closed form evaluation has been performed by Mavroeidis and Papageorgiou (2003) which is to be formulated by making parametric changes to the so-called Gabor wavelet and replacing a simpler function instead of the Gaussian curve with a more efficient algebraic statement. Ghodrati Amiri et al. (2012) proposed another efficient formulation matched either of the benefits of Mavroeidis’s and Gabor wavelets. Both of the aforementioned models are based on the preparing of an efficient multi-statement parametric configuration of harmonic wavelets as noted above. In this study, in addition to calibrate the desired closed-formulations on the velocity pulses of the selected strong records, the accuracy of the notified simulation has also been investigated from the spectral and energy point of views.

Results and discussion
The band of high frequencies corresponding to the spectral content of strong near-field records can be ignored appropriately. This is because the major amount of the related kinetic energy is usually transmitted in the form of a low frequency pulse along with a number of high frequency spikes. Generally, these features are displayed over a relatively short time domain. In this study, the analytical attention to this subject is concentrated on the simulation of coherent multiple pulses via EMD method. The purpose of such simulation is to create a wide range of powerful and high-energy artificial motions. Moreover, due to the limited availability of natural near-field earthquake records, the proposed pulses can be used to evaluate the structural seismic performance.
Conclusion
Generally, strong near-field records contain a few consecutive pulses with different periods and spectral configurations. The essential effects of these pulses must not be ignored in conducting of nonlinear dynamic time history analyses. Obviously, the effects of these type of earthquake records on the seismic response of mid-to-high rise structures (with a large periodic range) will be significant. Furthermore, the probable occurrence of the resonant mode, may cause destructive effects on the seismic response of structural skeletons. The proposed pulses in this study were formulated through the EMD method as well as performing an analytical calibration process related to both bands of high and low frequencies. The spectral evaluations of the fitted mathematical closed-form pulses were accomplished for the selected earthquake records. The obtained results indicate a good analytical convergence and correlation with the physical parameters of the natural ground motions.


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